Purdue Student Takes To Reddit To Say He Will Drop Out After Failing A Class

Today on Reddit, a Freshman who currently attends Purdue mentioned he wanted to leave the school for good since he was about to fail a final which meant he would fail the class. Below you will see his dilemma along with some suggestions from other users…

Dilemma:

I’m only a freshman in FYE (not for much longer) but I think it’s safe to say I’m done. The point of a weed-out class is to weed out people who can’t keep up and they were definitely succesful in doing that. Of course I have no one to blame but myself. I truly believe your grade is a result of the amount of effort you put in, which was far too low for me. I gained a lot of respect for Purdue and the students who get a degree from here. Unless a miracle happens on my physics final that is in ~3 hours, I’m going to drop out. I can’t justify paying out of state tuition only to fail a class. I don’t really know what the point of this post is, just wanted to get some things off my chest I guess.

Thanks for reading if you did.

Suggestions:

If you really want to get a degree from here, bite the bullet, take the F, and come back stronger. Learning from your mistakes will help set you up for success in the future. I’ve failed classes before, it happens. I’ve done well on homework and projects only to receive an F for missing one to many lectures (attendance > performance for some professors). I’m going to be graduating in a little over a week despite those previous failures. I would say don’t give up, if you do so after every failure, you’ll always end up losing and missing out.

Everyone fails some classes here. No matter what they tell you, it is perfectly possible to get through while having failed some classes. I’m about to do it myself, with one of those being First Year Engineering. Truth be told, the reason I didn’t pass FYE was bullshit, but I’ve failed other classes because of my own stupidity. Regardless, I would simply recommend switching majors. We have really good programs outside of engineering, and most of the schools will not give a fuck that you didn’t manage to pass FYE. Find something else you like and give that a shot if you’re really done with engineering!

You wouldn’t have posted here if you didn’t want any comments or thoughts so here’s two pennies for ya…

1) Dropping out isn’t giving up. A lot will convince you it is, but they don’t matter, only you do. You’ve gotta do what’s best for you and if you aren’t doing well and don’t enjoy/care enough to do well, then don’t spend the money to go here. Out of state is fucking expensive. It doesn’t make sense financially. I don’t blame you. Weigh your options and decide accordingly.

2) Switching majors isn’t always a good option. A lot will try to talk you into that. In the engineering or tech degrees you have a pretty good payoff here on what you spend on your degree and the job you can get with it to pay that off. Switching degrees just to stay here doesn’t make a lot of sense financially for a lot of degrees here at Purdue that have little payback. Is payback important? You bet it is if you’re going to spend a lot of money here. Did I mention it’s fucking expensive? That part makes a lot of people uncomfortable.

3) Whatever you decide people are proud of you. This is one of many hard decisions you’re going to make in life. If you stay and find something that works for you, then hell yeah my man, rock on! If you leave and find something that suits you better, then hell yeah again! It’s time to make your life work for you.

Good luck on that final!

In some cases going to a college in-state may be just as good. Purdue does have one of the best engineering colleges as you well know. But, there might be some good ones in your state as well. As far as physics goes , if it is physics 172. I did poorly on the midterms, but got a B on the final and managed to get a B in the class. The curve was great when I took the class, haha saved my grade. Give all you have into studying for that final and then wait and see for the grade. It might be higher than you expect.

I don’t think failing one class is a good indicator you should drop out. You said it yourself, its a function of the effort you put in. Purdue is pretty hard and maybe you could work harder. Its an indicator that you have some serious changes to make in your study habits. But honestly, I think you CAN do it.. unless you have a learning disability that prevents you from learning the material. I failed a lot of really hard classes, but I took them again. I learned what work ethic really is, and that lesson pays off the most. Payed out my ass in out of state tuition, too but in my opinion it was more than worth it because I learned that theres no way I was going to achieve my goals if I skated by forever like I was able to in high school.

One of the main things I’ve learned to be taken from college is success in failure. College is a time to test yourself and find where you lack. It’s how you learn from it that makes you better. I can’t count on my fingers how many of my friends have gone on probation or have even dropped out. It’s a pretty normal thing and to all of them, it has been a wake up call. If you want to roll over and die, that’s your call. My advice: Get up, brush yourself off, and keep walking but with the knowledge of what it’s like to fall down.

Tons of people have failed classes and gone on to complete their degree, excel in their field, etc. Focus on the task at hand and do as well as you can on your final. Then you should give yourself a little time to cool off. Never make big decisions during finals week 🙂

Don’t beat yourself up yet. Pretty sure I failed ME200. Regrouped, got a B the following semester. Part of college is learning to learn. Today I design structural repairs for old-ass structures for a living.